A Little Comfort
by MelancholyAndBlithe
Summary: Weiss wakes up in the middle of a nap to find a very upset Ruby and tries to offer comfort. Very slight White Rose


The ship's hum woke Weiss in the night, along with her dream. Senseless yelling from her father whilst running from him in their house turned labyrinth would've been enough to make any sane person wake up from even a deep slumber. They should be coming up on Atlas soon, if her memory was correct.

Everyone decided to take a small nap in the aftermath of the mess in Argus, Weiss included. She scowled slightly, annoyed that her sleep had been interrupted by her own subconsciousness. She adjusted herself a smidge, hoping to regain her slumber when she heard something coming from the back of the ship.

Sniffling.

Weiss looked at the sleeping faces of her friends, still blissfully comatose. Ren's head rested on Nora's and Yang had an arm around Blake protectively. Oscar laid out on the ground curled into a ball with Blake's coat laid over him as a blanket. Qrow and Maria were still in the cockpit. She could hear the faint sounds of them speaking in addition to the sniffles.

Ruby was missing. Her precious scythe, Crescent Rose was propped up against the side of the ship but Ruby herself was nowhere to be found. She had found her sniffling person. Weiss sighed and stood up, adjusting her skirt to be even before walking barefoot back to the back of the ship.

Sure enough, there Ruby was. Sitting on a box, hunched over, her hands at her side. Her back was turned towards the rest of the group, half concealed in shadows cast by the ship in moonlight as they sailed through the Remnant skies. The closer Weiss got, the more she could tell that Ruby had been crying. Weiss frowned in equal parts confusion and worry. This wasn't like Ruby. She never cries. Not really. Ruby turned her head, only to see Weiss. Her eyes widened a fraction before she wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand, trying to compose herself.

"Hey Weiss. I thought you were asleep." Ruby's voice wavered as she spoke and Weiss immediately felt sympathy for the poor girl.

"I was. Bad dream." Weiss replied, stepping closer to the crate.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Ruby sniffed again. She chose to fiddle with the hem of her cape, looking down at her fingernails rather than up at Weiss.

"You?" Weiss asked, stepping closer still.

"No, no. It's nothing." Ruby quickly responded, in a way typical for those busted while crying.

"It's not nothing if it's making _you_ cry. You never cry." Weiss walked around the crate and sat down next to Ruby, her legs crossed at the ankles, poised as always.

"It's-"

"It's not nothing. You can talk to me, Ruby."

Ruby hesistated and looked up at Weiss, finally. Weiss really felt for her and whatever made her cry. Her eyes were red rimmed and puffy and her cheeks were wet. Ruby looked back down, at her feet. She rocked back and forth a bit, her hands gripping the side of the crate. Her leg bounced for a moment before she sighed and looked back up at Weiss.

"I woke up and wanted a glass of water. I was thirsty. I heard Maria and Uncle Qrow talking about what happened and everything. I heard Uncle Qrow talking to Maria about us. About me. About Yang. I heard them talk about Professor Oz and what happened and what will happen to Oscar and I don't know, it just...it just hit me all at once.

"I thought about what happened to Yang, her losing Raven all over again, to Oscar and what will happen to him. I thought of Qrow, and how he's been feeling...I thought about our mission and how big it seems. It made me feel so small and I just-" Weiss nodded, and spoke up.

"It's okay, Ruby. I understand. This is huge." She spoke as gently as she could. "Probably bigger than anyone else has done in a very long time. I've even felt like it was too much at times. I think I'd be more worried if you didn't feel like-"

"But I'm not supposed to." Ruby cut her off, her voice raising a smidge. "I'm supposed to be our leader. I'm supposed to keep my head up and be positive. I'm supposed to keep us moving forward. I'm not supposed to get this overwhelmed. I feel like I haven't been doing my job as a leader lately. It's just been getting so hard and I..." Ruby cut off mid sentence, looked back down at her feet, and Weiss thought she was going to start sobbing again. She put a hand on Ruby's shoulder to offer comfort and support. She even offered a small smile to try and help however she could.

"Ruby?" Weiss spoke. Ruby looked back up at her. "I think you're a good leader. I think you're brave, and you're doing the best we can. We all are. We've been through a lot. Even you. That's what we're here for. We're a team. A team is supposed to lean on each other, right? Don't feel like you have to support everyone all the time. You don't. We're here for you, okay?"

Ruby smiled, her lips quivering ever so slightly before they steadied. Ruby wiped away another couple tears gathering at the corners of her eyes and offered a weak chuckle. She kicked her feet against the crate, a more genuine smile on her face now.

"Thank you Weiss." Weiss's smile widened with that and she nodded.

"You're a good person. So stop beating yourself up okay?" Weiss added, hoping that would help her friend. She moved her hand from Ruby's shoulder and laid it on the crate at her side. She felt that she had accidentally put it over Ruby's hand and twitched, not knowing if Ruby would appreciate that. When she noticed that Ruby didn't pull away, Weiss stayed, albeit cautiously, with her hand on Ruby's. Her hand was colder than she had expected. At least that made two of them.

"Hey Weiss?" Ruby spoke up again after a short silence between the two of them.

"Yes?"

"You're a good person too." Ruby gently laid her head on Weiss's shoulder. She stiffened slightly, not expecting the contact and looked at Ruby, hoping she'd give some kind of explanation but found none. The poor girl just sat there with her head on Weiss's shoulder, eyes closed, and finally relaxed. Weiss relaxed, and breathed a small laugh through her nose, a small smile and a blush on her features.

Weiss felt herself get sleepy all over again as she sat there. She didn't want to disturb Ruby but they couldn't sleep like that. It spelled a small disaster later if they did. Weiss moved her hand from Ruby's to tap on her shoulder, telling her that they should move back to the front of the ship to get their nap. Ruby rubbed her eyes and agreed as the two of them stood and went back to their spots.

They sat together and got comfortable all over again, their heads leaning back against the ship. It wasn't long before the two of them were fast asleep again.

* * *

**A/N:** My first jab at a RWBY fanfiction! I posted it a while ago on AO3, but thought I should transfer it here as well.

I wanted to make this set in the middle of the last chapter of Volume 6 because they had to cross from Mystral all the way to Atlas and if memory serves correctly, I don't think they offered any kind of time skip for that. It was just, get on the ship, leave Argus and literally the next scene almost, they were in Atlas. I just added a small scene and tried to do a little bit with Ruby and Weiss because I do ship me a little White Rose here and there and wanted to give it a go.

Please let me know if I needed to change anything. I did what I could with editing and proofreading but I have no beta and so some things are bound to go unnoticed but I'd like to fix them as soon as possible. I think I got everything (I hope) but let me know if I did.

Also, let me know if you like this and if you'd like to see more RWBY fanfictions from me in the future.

Thank you so much for reading. 3


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